Foreign Relations: We Are Ready

Amid the ups and downs of the
Berlin crisis, relationships between Bonn and Washington became flawed.
U.S. talk about the need for Berlin negotiations led Adenauer to fear
that President Kennedy was prepared to make concessions at German
expense. Washington was irked by Bonn's unwillingness to get down to
discussions, and by West German demands for nuclear arms. To make
matters worse, Kennedy and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had never
achieved any particular personal understanding. On a visit to
Washington last April, the Chancellor appeared unsure of the new
President, talked largely in guarded generalities about U.S.-German
problems. But last week,...